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Behind the Veil

September 14, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

As I rummaged through various items in storage, I came across a 10-inch square box that was light as a feather, labeled, “Holly’s veil”.  Over 24 years ago, I made my daughter’s wedding veil and after she left home, I boxed it up as most sentimental moms would.

A few years ago, I told my daughter I had it and asked if she wanted me to keep it.  She knew her daughters would probably want to choose their own when they married.  ”Whatever.”  It didn’t matter one way or the other.   I removed it and hung it on my Victorian-styled romantic bedroom wall amid my collection of vintage purses, hats and scarves.  My granddaughters spend hours pretending with those vintage items.  Their favorite is the veil.  They love to play bride.  They take turns letting me place the veil on their heads and arrange the portion that falls in front of their faces.  Then they gather their bouquets of silk roses and pretend “wedding day”.  They entertain hopes of someday being the bride to a handsome groom.

As Christians, we also have a hope.  Christ is our Bridegroom.  Christians are the church, the church is His bride.  Christ gave the ultimate dowery for us.  His death on the cross paid the price to have us join Him in a glorious wedding feast in eternity.  His blood washed us white as snow–it purified us from all unrighteousness so we can stand pure before a Holy God in Heaven.  Unlike a veil that hides the bride in a shadow of mystery, Christ’s blood covered us to be a light in the darkness of this world.

“12-Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13-We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. 14-But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15-Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16-But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17-Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18-And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:12-18

What is your veil?  Is it made of gossamer, toille, or gauze?  Or is it an opaque curtain drawn across the person you want to be for Christ?  Does it cloud your witness and the light within you?  As I read this passage above, I cannot help but ask these questions of myself, too.

Am I like Moses who hid behind a veil to prevent the Israelites from seeing he’d been with God?  On what or whom do I rely to express my faith, to share the gospel with the world?  The church?  The pastor?  A Bible Study group?  Since we are in Christ, then we have a hope that only we can share with the folks we each meet and greet in an ordinary day.  Since we have such hope, let us be bold like Paul and Timothy and Peter and John.  Let’s remove the veil and let others see the Light our Savior wants to illumine through His Spirit.

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2011

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A Christian’s Best Advertisement

June 24, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

I knew I was in trouble the moment I walked through the double set of glass doors. I followed several ladies into our church this past Sunday. The entrance is merely a small hallway leading to another longer hall with classrooms. Entrapped in the tiny hallway was a mixture of five women’s perfumes, and a couple of men’s colognes. With the first breath of fragrance, my throat tightened. I walked the twenty feet and ignored the greeter I usually stop and hug who gives me a bulletin each week. By the time I got to my classroom, I literally was choking. I couldn’t talk without constantly clearing my throat. Asthma and allergies. I didn’t have an inhaler. I drank coffee.

I wonder sometimes why people pour on so much perfume and cologne. Do they really think they smell that bad? Some people have a particular fragrance they wear and even in their absence, everyone knows they have been in the room. My department director told me that her husband’s law partner wears so much cologne that when he rides with her husband to lunch, she can smell his cologne on the seatbelt when she buckles up four hours later. Sometimes I think folks are walking advertisements for fragrance factories. Is this necessary? It makes me think of my life. What do I leave behind when I’ve left the room?

“For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To some we are a scent of death leading to death, but to others, a scent of life leading to life.” 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

I use to wear tee-shirts emboldened with all kinds of Christian messages and verses on them. I never went anywhere without my cross necklace. I had little fish-stickers on my car, and often carried Christian tracts to leave in the restaurant with my tip to the waitress. However, a few times I found myself being aggravated in line at the supermarket check-out while wearing the shirt advertising the peace of God. I recalled the fish sticker on my bumper when I failed to let another out in traffic, but went on my merry way. I had to keep my tract tucked inside my purse when I’d been rather impatient with a frazzled waitress who kept messing up my order.

I rarely leave a tract behind anymore…unless I’ve engaged the waitress or waiter in conversation about their lives, their needs, and shown compassion about their frazzled day, or inquired about the scowl which I felt revealed a headache or heartache. I’ve sometimes given my cross necklace away when someone compliments it. I no longer risk the fish on the back of my car. I’ve come to realize the best advertisement I have for Christ is who I reveal in my natural conversation and actions. If I impart no patience, no grace, no mercy, what will a tee-shirt explain? If I belittle or annoy another with rude behavior, or me-first aggression in buffet lines, then what will the message really say?

No. The fragrance of Christ is in the manifestation of His Spirit. Otherwise I become as a clanging cymbal, a noisy gong, a litany of worthless rhetoric.

LORD, help me be a better witness to Your love by being a living sacrifice of Your love. Make me aware of times my fragrance is but an odor. My words but empty tombs. My writing but whitewashed hypocrisy. Fill me today with your generous Spirit and keep me ever mindful of the fragrance You impart to me for others who do not know You. selahV

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2011

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Since We Are No Longer Darkness

March 16, 2011
Filed In Daily Devotionals

We were waiting for worship to begin.  Four-year-old Kinsey and I sat behind her elder sister who was about to sing for the congregation.  Kinsey was fiddling with the papers in her mother’s bookbag.  She pulled out two papers she’d gotten in Sunday School.  She stuffed the construction paper craft of day and night back into her mother’s carrier, then handed me the home-circular she had received in class that morning.

“Read it, Grama!  Read it to me,” she whispered.  The paper had two pictures, one of the moon and stars and one of the sun and butterflies.  I began to read:

“In beginning….”

“God made light!!!” Kinsey interrupted.

“Yes, that’s right;” I chuckled and affirmed.  Then I started over, “But before God made light, there was…”

“NOTHING!!” Kinsey eagerly interrupted again, “…nothing but darkness!”

I realized then and there that Kinsey knew exactly what she’d learned that morning in Sunday School.  She certainly didn’t need a refresher course from me.  She may not be able to read her paper, but she sure knew what it said.  Her eagerness and desire to tell me what it said was precious.  Children are like that.  When they learn something new, they immediately want to share it.  As I think of Kinsey’s enthusiasm, I consider how some people think that Sunday School and children’s classes are nothing but fun and games, puzzles, crafts and crayons.  I witnessed a 4-year-old child grasp the greatest principle of the Bible–God is.  She learned “In beginning God created.”  She understood and believed that God wiped out darkness by adding light.  His Light.  Such is the way it is for us. 

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”  Ephesians 5:8

Before God began His work in our hearts, we were darkness, then He came into us and made us light in the Lord.  When Paul wrote this verse, he was speaking to adults, not children.  Yet he told us to “live as children of light”, to walk in the ways of Christ.  So often adults filter what they know about God through a sieve of political and ethical correctness.  We tend to over-think, and speculate what others will think of us if we tell them Jesus loves them.  We get caught up in offending someone by asking them to join us at church.  Sometimes we just know too much for our own good.  We know how most people react when we talk about faith or religion; we brace ourselves for their rebuffs.  We get intimidated–not so much by others–but by our own insecurities and fear of rejection.  It’s no wonder the Lord tells us to become as little children…so trusting, so full of belief.

PRAYER:  LORD, remind us of the darkness we once lived with and the glory of Your light.  Let us be the lamp for Your light of love.  Let us be the candle for the world.  Let us become as children and so walk with enthusiasm and expectation of Your presence and power that we release Your light with all we do and say.

© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2011

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The Kingdom of God Is At Hand

December 5, 2009
Filed In Daily Devotionals

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Matthew 3:2

So much is contained in these nine words. Prophecy: the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Call: repent! Promise: If you repent, you will be part of the kingdom. Warning: if you do not repent, you will not be part of the kingdom. This message is first proclaimed from the lips of John the Baptist, the voice preparing the way for Messiah. It is later proclaimed from our Lord himself as he begins his public ministry: the divine King has issued an invitation into his kingdom.

As we begin another Christmas season let us remember these words from Jesus. He did not step from Heaven to take on flesh just to remain in our minds as the baby in a cradle. He came to establish a kingdom.

Christian, rejoice! The kingdom of Heaven is at hand! Even now it is in your midst, even now it is within you. Christ has come and has established his rule in the hearts of his people. You have received the promised kingdom. We await the day of the second advent, the return of our Lord to establish his kingdom over all the earth. While we wait we rejoice, shouting with thanks to God for his work among mankind.

While we rejoice, we share. We echo the message of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, crying out for sinners to repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. It is even now in their midst and while it holds great promise for those within, it holds great terrors for those without.

John the Baptist prepared the way for the first coming of Christ. We are told in Matthew 3:5 that all Jerusalem and Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him. Today we do not find John the Baptist proclaiming this message of repentance. Today we find the children of God, called in Acts 1:8 to be the witnesses of God in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. To prepare for the first coming of Christ the people were drawn in to hear the gospel. To prepare for the second, we are sent out.

On to Jerusalem! On to Judea and Samaria! On to the ends of the earth! Crying repent! Come to Christ! Delight now in the marvelous character of God! His kingdom is at hand! It is a wasted Christmas if these thoughts do not take root within you.

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